


[Meta] On Harry's Career After Hogwarts

by cassie5squared



Series: Potter Meta: Thoughts on the Wizarding World [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Meta, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-31
Updated: 2017-05-31
Packaged: 2018-11-07 09:02:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11055723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassie5squared/pseuds/cassie5squared
Summary: A short essay on why Harry seems suited for a career as an Auror.





	[Meta] On Harry's Career After Hogwarts

I’ve seen a lot of discussion about Harry’s career and I’m of the opinion that teaching as a full-time option is NOT something he would go for. The three main options I know people talk about for him are teacher, Auror and Quidditch player, but I personally think Auror is the most plausible.

You see, Harry has always been the kind of person who does well practically, but never makes a massive effort academically. And while Dumbledore’s Army was definitely something where he shone as a teacher, it was pretty much all practical - casting spells and learning to fight. Teaching DADA formally would have a lot more to it than that - look at all the stuff Remus Lupin taught in his year about handling dangerous magical creatures, for example. And there’d be a lot of theory involved, something that Harry doesn’t tend to deal with much. He’s all about getting in there and being practical, and he runs off instinct much of the time in a fight, which isn’t very useful for formal education.

He’s also got a burning need to be actually involved in things. It’s not in his nature, and never has been, to sit on the sidelines while other people make the effort to keep the world safe. He doesn’t trust that other people will take care of everything while he gets on with something less vital. This is probably linked to the fact that he spent far too much time as a child _having_ to take care of problems himself; he didn’t have any authority figures he could trust, so he learned that if he wanted something done _he_ was going to have to do it. And we see this all the way through the books; when faced with a problem, Harry will try to tackle it himself or at least think about doing so, and generally needs to be strongly persuaded to take it to someone higher up.

And finally, he is deeply protective of others. This is something else we see throughout his story; if someone is in need, or in danger, Harry will step up without a second thought to help or protect them. Look at his very first flying lesson, where he stands up to Draco Malfoy for laughing at and stealing from Neville. Look at when he runs to warn Hermione - a girl he doesn’t even _like_ at the time - when he realises she doesn’t know there’s a dangerous troll in the castle. Look at the way he saves Fleur’s little sister in the Triwizard Tournament when Fleur doesn’t show up herself, and he’s fully ready to battle an entire mermaid community to get that little girl out safe. Hell, look at the climax of Deathly Hallows! He walks to his own death because he believes it will help stop Voldemort from killing more people. Harry will literally lay his life down to protect others from harm. It’s part of who he is.

You think he would sit in a classroom marking essays or hang around playing Quidditch when there are Dark wizards out there causing havoc? Hell no. He knows how to tackle them, he has been doing it since he was eleven years old, and if he does it, that means one less person who has to see the horrors that lie out there. He might _like_ the idea of teaching, or Quidditch, but it’ll nag at him that he isn’t out there _doing something_ about the Dark wizards (not just Death Eaters, there are always going to be people who cause violence for their own ends) who are hurting people.

I'm sure he would be happy to drop in to be a guest speaker for the occasional DADA lesson, and I think he would be quite good at it, but even then I honestly believe he’d be off like a shot if he got word of trouble. If you really want to think of him passing on his practical DADA knowledge, picture him taking the new trainee Aurors under his wing and telling them that this is a difficult and dangerous career, but _this_ is how he’s learned to survive it.

In short, given his mindset and his skills, Auror makes perfect sense for Harry as a career and I personally don’t agree with the thought of him returning to Hogwarts as a full-time teacher.


End file.
